The Barbican has a new arts director. Her qualifications?
NewsFrom the press release:
The Barbican is thrilled to announce that Devyani Saltzman has been appointed its new Director for Arts and Participation. Saltzman is a Canadian writer, curator, public thinker, and cultural leader with over fifteen years of experience in cultural institutions, at the intersection between art, ideas, and social change. She will take up her new role in early July.
Saltzman was most recently Director of Public Programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario, North America’s fourth largest museum, where she worked with the programming team to shape the museum as a forum for discourse, reflecting all communities and the narratives of Torontonians. She was previously the Director of Literary Arts at the Banff Centre, a leading arts and creativity incubator, as well as a founding Curator at Luminato, Toronto’s international multi-arts festival.
Saltzman has a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, combining sociology, anthropology, animal behaviour and evolutionary biology to look at the complex underpinnings of human experience.
Key to her vision for the next chapter of the Barbican is the potential to create a new type of ethos in public institutions that is truly in service to their people and public, in addition to presenting the best of cutting-edge programming. Her upcoming nonfiction book, EXITING: Towards a Future of Work that Serves Us All, comes out with Random House in 2025. It explores the trend of increasing pushback against systemic change in our institutions, the exiting of diverse leaders from organizations they were invited into, and what new healthier systems could look like. Her first book, Shooting Water, a memoir of family relationships and Indian politics, was called ‘A poignant memoir’ by The New York Times and received starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Libr ary Journal.
In sum: she has never worked outside Canada or in a metropolis anything like the magnitude and complexity of London.
We wish her well.
But, looking on the bright side, Ms Saltzman’s degree from Oxford included the study of animal behaviour. Whether that might assist in interactions with visitors to the Barbican, only time will tell.
What a mean spirited assessment Norman. What about outsider voices bringing fresh insights and ideas to our capital? Banff is pretty major, so it looks like she has plenty of relevant experiences. And how is anyone ever to get a promotion by your logic?
Congrats to Devyani, you sound wonderful!
amen, we’ve a lot to learn from instituional practices outside this little island of ours. Congratulations Devyani
The Art Gallery of Ontario is pretty major, too.
I’m sure her training in “animal behaviour” will be very helpful.
Don’t be so cynical, I’m sure that London Zoo is looking for an expert in theatre and concert hall management as we speak.
Toronto is one of North America’s biggest cities and also often cited as one of the world’s most ethnically diverse cities. It’s definitely complex. The Art Gallery of Ontario is one of Toronto’s biggest arts organisations, it’s not small fry, even if not as big as the Barbican.
If the Barbican wants to jump through the many hoops involved in recruiting someone from outside of the UK they have probably seen something quite special in her.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and sometimes the greatest leaders can be found in smaller organisations. I wish her extraordinary luck in her new role.
“In sum: she has never worked outside Canada or in a metropolis anything like the magnitude and complexity of London.”
So how do you gain experience of the above, when you are never given the chance to gain experience, because you don’t have the experience?
The alternative is a cosy game of musical chairs for those already in the know.
Or in the UK?
I would have thought that reading the guff put out by the Barbican that that would be enough to know why she/they was selected. As to “a metropolis anything like the magnitude and complexity of London.” I think SD needs to get out more. She will be joining many in the metropolis who are equally malfunctioning beyond their capabilities if the standard of diverse mediocrity on display is anything to go by. Still, ACE and the Mayor will no doubt be thrilled
A rather parochial attitude befitting this blog. The empire is long gone, London might actually learn a thing or two from “the colonies”. Someone needs to get out more…
I will have trouble wishing her well — she seems unsuited to the position, and seems to have no particular experience with music.
Barbican is an arts centre, much more than a music hall…
Barbican is not only about music but also theatre and other visual and performing arts.
What a salty summary conclusion. Did the author of this article apply and didn’t get an interview?
Sounds like a very qualified person with a vision getting an exciting opportunity. Excited to see it.
I look forward to the development of a ‘Barbican Cultural Library’, encompassing publications describing all art genres (as well as anthropology [which populations frequent the Barbican], animal behaviour [as it relates to unattentive concert audiences] and evolutionary biology [fans of Puccini through Boulez] of course)!
That last line seems snarky…or am I completely misleading it???
Def sounds snarky.
Does she have knowledge of music
‘In sum: she has never worked outside Canada or in a metropolis anything like the magnitude and complexity of London.”
In sum, she sounds ideal for the part.
I think they should create a new Guinness Book of World Records category for “How many “woke” terms can one cram into a press release for a new director of an arts institution”! I was only surprised by the fact it took four paragraphs to employ the word “diverse”. Boy that sure must have taken a lot of emotional restraint on the writer
Canadian seems a language not easy to follow unless augmented with a PhD in woffle
Oh Norman, you are so unnecessarily cruel to her. She has experience that is relevant as after all she is meant to aid participation and creating a public space for all…which by definition is what the Barbican has been. Anyone in that position will have music programmers and curators to be advised by and to suggest artists. She is the figurehead that brings all the strands together.
And frankly you of all people to scoff at her qualifications, when you spent a decade pretending to be a musicologist. A bit of humility wouldn’t hurt.
I have never claimed to be a musicologist; it is not a respectable profession. I am a writer and historian.
I would stick to the day job.
As well as attention seeker…
Historians generally don’t have their books retracted by the publishers
You and I seem to have rather different ideas about what “respectability” means.
The Art Gallery of Ontario is located in Toronto, which has 10 million people in its metropolitan area. Not a metropolis? Not only would she have had to deal with municipal and federal governments, but with the added provincial government in between. What makes London uniquely complex, apart from a ‘we’re special over here’?
Brexit?
I think that saying working in the middle of Toronto is “not a metropolis” is a really bad take. The headline question and end summary reek of misogyny to me
I agree. I doubt this article would have been written in his the same way if this wasn’t a woman.
In any case, this is a pretty mean-spirited and a professional article.
Nice take… I admire your sense of victimhood
Norman, as usual your pithy comments cut to the quick…. This is the way the arts in Great Britain are heading, see also the Sinking Southbank, run by an ex-ITV team of Chipping Norton lickspittles and a COO who wouldn’t know a Steinway from a spreadsheet. God help us all.
she has two ears, two eyes, and two hands, right? She’s already doubly prepared for this position. Applause in order!
Reminds me of a person in my office who
Thought a duet was jewish twins.
This has all the earmarks of a Woke political decision. BEWARE. She will attempt to sever any thread of Western artistic legacy in favor of Marxist ideology.
This is honestly a incredibly uncomfortable article that would frankly, never be written about a Man.
The questions around her extra qualifications as if people do not live complex and nuanced lives and that you must infact always and forever only do arts qualifications is absurd.
May the new blood she brings see the continuation and development of an already wonderful arts establishment.
Congratulations on the job and I truly can’t wait to see what you do Devyani Saltzman.
Erm, Ontario appears appears to have a larger population than London, and I’m surenit has its own challenges as any large citt does.
And overall her experience looks fine to me, and sociology and anthropology seemseem relevant to the role, but then I’m no expert!
Ontario is a PROVINCE, not a city, and is almost 10 x the physical size of England, which is a COUNTRY. LONDON is a CITY, and has a population not much smaller than the entire PROVINCE of Ontario. I get it, Arts institutions serve – we certainly hope – communities far beyond the city in which they are located. But that must hold equally true for London institutions which arguably have to hold up an even higher standard because they exist within a higher density of similar organizations. But to suggest that Toronto – a lovely and thriving place – equates with one of the most important cities that has existed in all modern human history, makes no sense. And Banff BTW is literally and by its own definition a TOWN. Again a beautiful one and yes, I have been there.
Sounds a bit condescending. Perhaps the colonials will bring a new experience and perspective?
The Arts are facing the gravest crisis for several decades, not least in Britain. I’m sure Devyani Salzman will do her very best to uphold The Barbican’s reputation as a cultural centre of excellence. Good luck, Mrs. Salzman and, above all, be bold and imaginative.
Animal behaviour must be the key.
She sounds great. Toronto is a major arts hub, and the Art Gallery of Toronto is a major International institution, probably as prominent as the Barbican. Banff is a big deal, too. She seems to have insight, experience and knowledge. Seems exciting!
How many DEI boxes does she check off
I am sure the selection committee is slapping itself on its back for this most “diverse” quota hire… Did not know GB had an affirmative action policy in place. An over-intellectual individual with quasi-socialist impulses… What could go wrong?
Let her be judged on what she achieves and not on a CV. Revisit the topic in a couple of years when she has a track record to examine. I do fear for the Arts in the UK but at this stage not particularly because of her particular appointment. I hope she does great things there to be honest but right now gave no clue if she will or won’t.
Indian politics? Is that what you meant. ? From India ?
Thank God she has no experience in the concert hall. Otherwise, perish the thought, we might get the benefit of some good on-platform planning. Phew,